Trapped In Time is the tumblelog of Matt Simpson. Matt is the co-owner of Maven Web Solutions. His business partner is Eugene. They also blog live music with Todd at The Butter Room, whose latest project is Jamwich.
Matt has two min pins, Forbin & Floyd. He often blogs about music and is a Phishhead who went on 2009 summer tour. In addition to traveling, Matt takes photos. Proud Hoosier and Chicagoan.
Matt Suggests: Annicka, Autumn, Brian, Chris, Christina, Drew, Elle, Jim, Josh, Irick, Katrina, Kaylie, Kelly, Megan, Michael and Michael, Mills, Nikki, Shannon, Sharon, Stacey and Terz, amongst others.
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Tom Morello, Rage Against The Machine (via greekalicious) |
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For my mom, and all the other moms we celebrated today. Moms are pretty cool.
I’ve found this a much better way to utilize twitter. It hides in my background but with the click of one button in my toolbar it’s in front of me and updated. The interface is beautiful (which isn’t surprising considering the design of their iPhone app), and the functionality is very robust, allowing you to do anything you would on twitter’s website, while allowing for multiple accounts. Highly recommended (well as highly as I can recommend twitter in general).
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This is a great read, and put a huge smile on my face to see that one of my musical heroes is truly proud of the path he’s on and has come to terms with his destructive behavior. The future of Phish and this summer tour couldn’t look any brighter after reading this news. And perhaps the true value of this article and Trey’s appearance in D.C. is his experience in drug court and rehab programs that prevented him and others from going to prison for crimes that were hurting themselves far more than society as a whole. More importantly, drug court and rehabilitation actually works, compared to imprisonment:
Addiction is a battle far too few people actually care to understand, especially in our political and legal systems. But I firmly believe that drug court offers an economic, compassionate solution that if our friends and family had to go through, we would be thankful for - much more thankful than the alternative. Check the link for some more substantive details and statistics on these types of programs. |
My parents came up to the city today and I took them out for a late lunch. My real gift to my mom (and dad) though was a week with Forbs. Eugene and I are going to be out in Charlottesville on business for a few days, so Forbin needs somewhere to get his daily attention.
My mom’s a special lady. She’s raised two quality sons and beaten cancer, and I owe her a whole lot, much more than a pup.
The best Hard To Handle ever. Listen/download the entire show here.
(via thebutterroom)
That finish was straight balogna. And way to go, Rick Carlisle, for wearing the opposing team’s colors. What an idiot.
Wearing your opposing team’s colors to a T - as in, “Time out, we’re about to lose.” This is a pretty powerful image of what the playoffs are all about.
Like their music or not, Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails have been innovators and leaders in the music industry for over twenty years now. Over the past year Reznor has taken cues from Radiohead’s In Rainbows release and dropped several albums with no warning, making millions in the process and redefining the revenue model for established bands.
Not surprisingly, he and his team have also taken a proactive approach in developing one of the most engaging, community-based applications for the iPhone. In this demo Reznor, NIN art director Rob Sheridan (see: insane light show for their live concerts), and Digg’s Kevin Rose introduce the new app along with a slew of interactive features.
I love the push/pull effect that an iPhone app can leverage with an existing site, especially in the context of band and/or live music. The last few minutes of this demo are the most intriguing and innovative. Bridging the gap between those at a concert and those who are at home on their computers can be pretty powerful for bands and genres of music with a very devoted fanbase.
From the perspective of a designer and developer, much of this content can be pulled into the iPhone and pushed to the website with minimal ease utilizing XML feeds and developing light, compact web services that bridge the two. From the perspective of a business owner, there is a lot of untapped potential to develop more useful, interactive and ultimately fulfilling communities for both established and growing artists.
Nightmares on Wax, aka DJ EASE, aka George Evelyn, is one of my favorite artists in this genre (more like genres, spanning house, downtempo, and trip-hop). Unfortunately, I don’t think many people are actually aware of him or his music. He’s got a really unique thing going, one which always puts me in a good mood. This is one of my favorites, which I have posted in video form before. If you like Quantic, Thievery Corporation, Bonobo, Ratatat, or Kruder & Dorfmeister, you might dig this.
(Photo via PresleyJesus)
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Roger Ebert, in his beautiful post on life, death, and faith titled “Gentle Into The Night.” His blog is one of the most insightful and interesting I have come across in some time and I found this post particularly interesting. Ebert has no religious faith, and argues that “faith is neutral. All depends on what is believed.” The concept of eternity and living forever scares him, and yet he takes comfort in knowing that his life will end one day. While for many that may be hard to understand, I appreciate it greatly. Having faith in what’s real and what’s inevitable (perhaps faith is not the right word)? That is truth. He continues, “All I can do is think with my mind. All I can be is who I seem to myself. I can only be where it seems that I am. Time seems to move quickly or slowly, but it is time all the same; my wristwatch proves it… So within that reality, someday I will certainly die. I am 66, have had cancer, will die sooner than most of those reading this. That is in the nature of things.” And yet, he is not an unhappy man, quite the opposite. He’s proud of the life he’s lived, of what he’s accomplished, of those whose lives he’s affected. However, just like his life’s memories, he views his own work, his own memes as temporary and fleeting, to be lost in the cosmic debris. This is how he would like to be remembered, and this is what important to him: I respect kindness in human beings first of all, and kindness to animals. I don’t respect the law; I have a total irreverence for anything connected with society except that which makes the roads safer, the beer stronger, the food cheaper and the old men and old women warmer in the winter and happier in the summer. 57 words from a wall in one of his favorite Chicago taverns, summed up in one: kindness. Faith in kindness is one I think we can all agree to share, regardless of what other beliefs we might hold. |
Some of the Beasties’ best (and most underrated) work is their funky instrumentals on the In Sounds From Way Out which features outtakes from Check Your Head and Ill Communication. While the group is most notable for their rap/hip-hop stylings, they are also very talented and knowledgeable musicians. On this album they play guitar, bass, and keys, sampling from the likes of Richard “Groove” Holmes and others. Without contextualizing it, this album could easily feel at home as a Stax or Blue Note release from the early 70’s.
Two years ago today, I had just arrived in Madrid, embarking on a month-long 
adventure backpacking Europe with Eugene immediately on the heels of our college graduation. We watched bull fights in Madrid, by chance ran into a huge music festival taking place in the heart of Sevilla, took in one of the most scenic sunsets in all of Europe over the Sierra Nevadas in Granada, explored Gaudi’s architecture and Piccasso’s museum in Barcelona, lounged on the beach and partied with new French Canadian friends in Ibiza. Then we headed to Germany and Munich, where we drank and ate a monstrosity of Deutsches Essen at the world’s second largest beer garden. And as is evident in this 
photo, we were left in awe at the beauty from atop the Eagle’s Nest, and were lucky enough to see Neu Schwanstein, a piece of architecture that can’t even be fully appreciated without seeing it in person.
Looking through my photo albums it’s hard not to get that itch to go back and explore the small villages of Bayern (Bavaria), or many of the countries we didn’t make it to (Switzerland, Amsterdam, France).
In addition to Germany and Spain, we flew to Dublin where we spent almost a full week, touring Kilmainham Gaol, the Jameson distillery, and Guinness factory with a 360 degree lookout of the entire city. However, Eugene had come down with what we have to believe was salmonella poisoining, and struggled to enjoy the pleasures of the Irish.
So being in the adventurous spirit, we went to an Internet cafe and started plotting how we could stay longer, and where that stay would be. We settled on Eastern Europe to mix things up and cut down on costs, and booked flights to Budapest where we spent three days exploring both sides of the city. We then took one very broke down train to Bratislava where we spent a night before booking it to Vienna, which is a city I remain in love with. On the last day we were there it lightly rained throughout the afternoon as thick clouds loomed. Yet behind the clouds the sun was still out, which created a sunset so rich and stunning that even local business owners came out of their shops to watch it.
My itch to travel is as strong as it’s ever been today, and Eugene and I will be doing plenty of it again over the next few months (albeit not to Europe). We head out to Charlottesville next week to meet with the Business Bullpen crew, and I’ll be headed to Boston on May 31 to see Phish at Fenway Park before we kick off our 11 day June tour of the Midwest, followed by our west coast adventure that will feature scenic stops at Red Rocks, Moab, the Bay Area, Glacier Lake, and The Gorge. I hope I never lose the urge to travel, as every experience has added something tremendous to my outlook on life, be it the unique culture I’ve experienced, the beautiful sights I’ve seen, or the escape of the mundane that can often accompany your comfortable and familiar surroundings.
